Japan - Yokohama

Yokohama is the 2nd largest city in Japan, but it is really part of Tokyo. The trip to Tokyo is only some 30 minutes.  Yokohama has the tallest building in Japan.  You may have noticed that the last two pictures in the Kobe post are not where they are supposed to be.  That is because due to the lack of good capacity on the ship that the pictures bounce around and are VERY hard to move back to their correct position within the text.  Sorry about that.  The same is the case with the Yokohama pictures.



View from the Landmark Tower




Grace and Corinne Law in front of Tall Ship at base of the Landmark Tower

  The 2nd day we went to Mt Fuji and Hakone.  Mt Fuji is the national symbol of Japan.  It is the highest peak in Japan at 12,388 feet with a near-perfect stratovolcano shape and has been dormant since 1707.  One arrives at the visitor station which is known as Step 1.  There are many levels as one drives up to the top step with is Step 5.  There is a temple at this last step.  From the temple hikers climb to the summit, which is said to be a five-hour climb.  Then it is 3 and a half hours back down.  As one can see the top has a large layer of snow around it. There is a Japanese proverb warning which says, "He who climbs Mount Fuji once is a wise man, he who climbs it twice is a fool."  We are neither wise nor foolish.  After seeing Mount Fuji we went to the Hakone National Park and from Hakone we rode the famous Komagatake Ropeway up for a big view of Lake Hakone.  

Rainbow on way to Mount Fuji



Mt Fuji through the Clouds

 

The Landmark Tower



Ken and Donna below Mt Fuji at Visitor Center - Step 1



Overlooking the Valley at Step 5



Corinne and Jim Law with Grace at Step 5




Grace and Ken at Step 5




Overlooking the valley from Step 5



Grace in the Red Maples on Lake Hakone

Grace with Duck paddle boats on Dock at Lake Hakone

Corinne and Jim Law with Grace on Ferry on Lake Hakone

Our next stop is back on U. S. soil in Honolulu. 

Japan

In Japan we made two stops – one in Kobe and the other in Yokohama.  Our co-chairman of the Lifelong Learners was Betty Waldron.  Betty and her husband, Milt, had made some 10 trips on SAS, so Betty knew a lot about the workings of Semester at Sea.  Anyhow, we had a party in the Glazer Lounge (where the adults went for refreshments each night) for Betty’s departure.  She was a great help to all us old LLLs.



Betty Waldron

Our first day of two we went on a city orientation.

Our guide took us through an area where we saw several memorials to the 1/17/1995 earthquake in Kobe that saw some 6,000 people die.  It is an important part of Kobe as most of the city was devastated.

Between Shanghai and Kobe we passed north of Kyushu and south of Honshu. The below volcano was on an island before we passed between those two big isllands of Japan. Ken's brother was stationed at Fukuoko (spelling?) Air Force Base on Kyushu in the 1960s. Our guess is that this island was just west of Kyushu and not on that island. But the seas are large so it is hard to tell.

  

Active Island Volcano in the Japanese islands

Seattle, WA is a sister city to Kobe.  Sometime after the earthquake Seattle sent the below totem pole to honor the victims of the earthquake.

Totem Pole Donated by Seattle to Earthquake Victims

 

View from 24th floor of the government building with MV Explorer

Grace in front of our ship - the MV Explorer

 The 2nd day we went to the Kobe Fashion Museum.  No pictures allowed inside. It was very interesting as it included pictures over the centuries of fashion. Much of the exhibit featured pictures of France fashion starting in the early 1900s. We really enjoyed it.

Grace in front of the Kobe Fashion Museum

Corinne Law and Grace on a pretty boulevard in Kobe



Our guide ovelooking the first memorial to the Kobe victims

Another memorial to the earthquake victims

We will post Yokohama separately.